Five more chicks

Out of a dozen eggs, five hatched and time will tell how many are roosters. The five Welsummers are brown with stripes and look very similar to two of our Ameraucanas, who, we are told can take on the look of any breed. The Welsummers have orange feet which help us identify them, the Ameraucanas have grayish feet and puffy cheeks. The new babies have integrated nicely with the six we got yesterday, it helps they all hatched on Sunday and are the same size.

Here they are all sleeping.

A Polish chick taking a drink

Welcome little chicks, we are so excited to have you in our basement. Z can't wait until tomorrow when you turn three days old and he's allowed to hold you for the first time. Next week we'll invite little friends to come and visit you. What a great experience this is for all of us.

Six have arrived!

Wow...what a day this has been. It has certainly been eventful. Later in the week I'll share about our morning, but for now I'm just sharing about our afternoon. As of now, one third of the Welsummers have hatched from the incubator at our friend's house. So we'll see how many we end up with tomorrow when we go to pick them up.

Today we drove to Polk, Ohio which is literally in the middle of nowhere. We dropped off the kids at Ben's grandma's house first so they could play with their cousins. Then we stopped for some food for lunch. We don't often eat out and it was a treat to be near a Popeye's, which is one of the few American restaurants we had access to when I lived in England. So for memory's sake, I had myself some Popeye's Chicken and finished up the last of it as we pulled into the hatchery, which Ben and I had to laugh about. As promised all six of our little chickadees were ready for us.

The two Polish ones got their beaks pecked so much they bled at first. They must be really unpopular with their crazy tufts on top of their heads. The lady at the hatchery gave us some food and water for the chicks so they wouldn't peck each other so much. It mostly worked. I tried a little conditioning of the chicks on the drive home. Every time they pecked at each other I would tap their heads and say, "No!". It does seem to have worked. Everyone is getting along splendidly now. Granted they have mostly been sleeping since we've been home. They like their heat lamp and quickly learned where their water and food are. Z has unofficially named them all "Morty & Gordy".

Here we are showing our niece and nephew the chicks at Grandma's house.

Here they are in the temporary home until they get big enough to go outside.

More WigChicks to come tomorrow night, we'll be sure to show more pictures as they arrive. For now, enjoy the all new slide show of the last couple of weeks. Thanks for being part of our WigLives.

The Ash

Pictures I can't stop looking at.

K-Mart Special

I used to be a tour guide at our college for prospective students and their families when they'd visit. I remember taking one family with all boys on a walking tour of the campus. It seemed every time one of them made the tiniest joke, the mother would giggle generously. She laughed so easily and so often. Her felicitous personality made the whole family a fun and happy family to be around.

I've been trying to laugh more readily, at myself especially and it seems I took a wrong turn somewhere. Yesterday, my husband, who has great wisdom, kindly chided me for laughing at our children. It seems I've gotten the giggles, inappropriately at times, at the silly things our children do. I think I just got carried away with trying to be a happy mom.

I can hardly help it when Juju stomps her little foot and throws whatever is in her hand with such accuracy as to peg whatever she sets her sites on. Or when I find her yelling, "Stuck!" with her hand inside a toilet paper roll...again. Or when Z gets so sleepy he falls over and over again. Thankfully, my reprimand was perfectly timed. Later on that night I was bathing the two Wiglets and had Juju stand up so I could wash her bottom.

Z looked and said, "Where's Juju's wiener?"

(I don't like that term, but in our battle of terms, Ben's won, I had voted for "willy").

Me: She doesn't have one, she's a girl.

Buddy: Oh, she needs to go to the store and get one.

Me: [no laughing!]

I gave a brief anatomy lesson about boys and girls and how they're different. I was very glad I didn't laugh as I might have when my giggles were getting the best of me.

Coming soon to a blog near you!

One family at our church has Welsummer chickens and roosters, another family at our church has an incubator. On Easter Sunday we gave a dozen fertilized eggs from the one family to the other and 21 days later we'll see how many of those hatch. We'll also see how many are females! Too many roosters and we'll be having chicken for dinner a little sooner than later. Below is a Welsummer family, they're known for their dark brown eggs and are good for meat as well.

Because we like variety, we've scheduled to pick up a few interesting breeds at a hatchery the day after the first set hatch. We ordered four female Ameraucanas who are known for their "Easter" eggs.

We also ordered two White Crested Black Polish Standard females, just for fun.

Follow the countdown in the sidebar with us! We've got a lot of work to do before they get here.

Smiles for you

Juju talking to her Grandma J in Germany

Two sick kids cuddling a couple weeks ago.

Some pictures for you to enjoy on your birthday, Mom! We love that our little Juju favors you more than anyone, and hope she keeps those curls as long as you have.

My mom

Juju

Here's three new AMAZING recipes for y'all to try:

Baked Oatmeal

Bread

Granola

I have made each of these 2-3 times in the past 2 weeks! I get a little excited when I find a good new recipe. The baked oatmeal is a local Amish thing I guess, it seems everyone around here knows what it is, and I have missed out my whole life...until now. I can eat the the whole pan by myself, but Ben likes it with crunchy raw sugar on top and heavy whipping cream all over it.

Our friends from Washington gave us the bread recipe and wowed us with it when they came. It's now my best bread recipe (not best for you, but you'll forgive it once you taste it).

I've been wanting to try and make granola again since I burned three batches in a row about ten years ago. I finally got brave enough this past weekend and made a batch...then another the next day...it's that good.

I've got lots to share, we're busy tilling the garden today, but come back soon!